The Kek Lok Si Temple lights up ceremony 2017 will be last event to light up, according to the temple representative. “The work involved is huge and very stressful. Former abbot Datuk Seri Ven Seck Jit Heng at 61, and I are getting old, and we do not want to pass the burden to the younger monks as we want them to spend more of their time on religious matters and studies.

“It is time consuming to put up the lights and lanterns. Preparations would start three months before the Chinese New Year and my people would be stressed out at the end of the day,” he said

Ven Xian Guan said it was Ven Jit Heng’s idea to light up the temple, and the event grew bigger and bigger over the years.

“He started with only a few hundred lanterns and it has expanded to what it is now, with tens of thousands of LEDs and lanterns lighting up the temple.

During the Kek Lok Si lighting-up ceremony on Sunday, Ven Jit Heng said the expense for the event was between RM600,000 and RM800,000.

State government asked the temple to reconsider the decision as it is one of the major attraction to the tourists every Chinese New Year in Penang.